Author Information
Angela Shueh Ching Ng, University of Reading, United KingdomYin Khoo, Independent Scholar, Singapore
Abstract
Workplace burnout has become a growing concern across professional environments, with emotional suppression contributing to employee stress, disengagement, and reduced well-being. While many organisational interventions focus on workload management or individual resilience, fewer address the emotional climates of workplaces where employees process, express, and make sense of their experiences. This study explores the use of a serious game, the Emotional Baggage Boardgame (EBBG), as a structured intervention to facilitate emotional reflection, empathy, and collaborative dialogue among working adults. The study involved 68 Asian working professionals in Singapore who participated in facilitated gameplay sessions during a company-wide learning day, with 33 participants providing response to post-game survey. Each session was conducted in small groups to encourage interaction and reflection. Data were collected through facilitators observations, conversations during play and post-game survey. Template analysis was used to examine participants’ experiences and identify key themes emerging from gameplay. Findings suggest that the EBBG created a structured and psychologically safe space for participants to articulate emotions, share perspectives, and reflect on workplace challenges. The gamified format lowered barriers to discussing sensitive topics, enabling authentic conversations that fostered empathy, relational awareness, and collaborative problem-solving, which are often challenging to achieve within conventional workplace settings. The study demonstrates how EBBG adapted the principles of Klassens Tid from educational contexts to the workplace, offering organisations a practical approach to facilitate emotional dialogue, strengthen interpersonal understanding, and support employee well-being as part of broader efforts to mitigate workplace burnout.
Paper Information
Conference: SEACAH2026Stream: Humanities - Teaching and Learning
This paper is part of the SEACAH2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Ng A., & Khoo Y. (2026) Milestones & Mindsets: A Board Game to Navigate Emotional Baggage, Inspired by Klassens Tid ISSN: 2760-5698 – The Southeast Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2026 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 27-43) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2760-5698.2026.3
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2760-5698.2026.3
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